Why Are Dental Implants Made of Titanium?
Dental implants are being asked to do a very difficult job: take the place of your natural tooth root. Because of the numerous functions a dental implant has to perform in this job, there are few suitable materials. Titanium is one of these, for many reasons.
Most importantly, titanium is a biocompatible material. This means that your body will generally accept titanium as part of its structure, and not reject it. This allows the dental implant to become fully integrated into the bone, called osseointegration. Sometimes, the surface of the titanium is treated with acid or coated with a rough surface to further encourage osseointegration.
Titanium is very strong for its weight, which makes it an excellent choice for someplace where the implant must be small and must withstand tremendous forces. Titanium is also a good choice because it forms its own rust coat. Unlike iron, which powders and flakes away, when titanium rusts, the material becomes stronger and airtight.
As an added bonus, titanium is almost completely nonmagnetic, so your dental implant won’t set off the metal detectors at the airport!
To learn more about what makes dental implants durable, please contact Dr. Scott Greenhalgh to schedule an appointment at his Denver area office.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 23rd, 2011 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Implant Dentistry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
